Former Yellow pages publisher Hibu issued another dire trading update as it warned it has once again missed a deadline to reach an agreement with lenders over its mountain of debt.

The directories publishers, which has loans worth £2billion and a market value of just £8.5million, said it expects to reach a deal on restructuring its debt ‘in the near future’. This is likely to be a debt for equity swap.

Hibu, which is in danger of collapse after gorging itself on a series of questionable acquisitions at the top of the market, has already warned there is ‘material uncertainty’ about whether it can continue trading.

Mounting debts: Former Yellow Pages publisher Hibu, has already warned there is 'material uncertainty' about whether it can continue trading

It also said it was likely to default on its loans and that its shares are probably worthless.

Hibu (up 0.05p to 0.38p) has been trying to reinvent itself as a digital services firm after the bottom fell out of its directories market, which is shrinking by 25 per cent every year as users switch to the internet.

Pre-tax profit, inflated by a one-off rebate from lenders, rose from £2million to £19million. But this masked a 48.5 per cent fall in operating profit to £55million as sales fell 14 per cent to £314million.